J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Prop Shaft Strut replacement

roger, roger ... that photo was picked up from the Mojo for sale site photos. not a vic photo.

Bill -- you are too close to the "racing" hulls ... the guys that cruise aren't obsessed with fairing the strut in every year. They just want a fun boat to sail.

Got the strut off of Chaos this week and found that the two forward bolts holding the strut were glassed over. Only the two stern bolts were accessible. I assume the forward bolts are held in place by nuts encased in fiberglass. The stern bolts are behind the engine bulkhead, while the forward bolts appear to be in front of the bulkhead.

Does anyone know if this is the way all of the boats were manufactured?

Rhapsody is the same.

I was going to replace the cutlass bearing yesterday and noticed that the strut is loose. My only problem is how to fix it.
On the outside the strut mount and bolts are faired over
On the inside the strut bolts are not visible. If I look in the cockpit locker there is absolutely no sign of the strut. When I look in the engine compartment, there is a rectangular piece (I think of wood) fiber glassed into the liner where I think the strut should be. Are the strut bolts under that peice?
Can I cut that out with a Dremmel and find the strut bolts under that?

when you say faired over ... do you find that this fairing cracks every year? On 526 and 505 my fiberglass guy ... also on the line at TPI 30 years ago, admitted that the engineering on that was marginal ... he then decided the only way to go was to actually fiberglass the outside of the hull over the strut base.

Yes you need to dig out access inside. Earlier in this thread, I have a photo of the outside fiberglass on 526.

The fairing has cracked around the strut. Probably due to the fact that the strut is loose and moves a bit

When I fixed Natural High, that square piece in the engine room was solid epoxy and the nut heads are embedded within it. I did dremel them out, filled the gaping holes with epoxy again, and then put in longer through bolts so the heads were accessible. The rear strut bolts are hiding just outside the aft most bulkhead (below the control panel). You need to put yourself inside the lazerette upside down to get at them!!

First I cut away the fiber glass that covered the outer surface of the strut. Then, I drilled a small (1/8") hole just in front of and one just behind the strut but in line with the bolts.
I measured the distance from the drill to the strut bolts. From inside, I measured back from the drill hole and took a small hole saw and drilled over the bolts. After breaking away the material, found the nuts and tightened the strut. I found the back bolts in a similar fashion but did not need to drill as the bolts were barely covered.
I replaced each of the bolts with longer ones, added lock washers and nylock nuts to insure that they would remain secure.
In the front, I built up a 5/8" damn 7" x 7" and filled it with additional epoxy. Then I took a 1/4" x 2" x 5" piece of stainless, drilled holes to align with the strut bolts and placed it on top of the epoxy base that I had built up.